


Never Again

by RoxyLily



Series: Umbrella Academy Fix-Its [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Ben Hargreeves, BAMF Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves' Tentacles | Bentacles, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode Fix-it, Fix-It, Gen, Ghost Ben Hargreeves, Good Sibling Allison Hargreeves, Good Sibling Ben Hargreeves, Good Sibling Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Luther Hargreeves Being an Asshole, Mute Allison Hargreeves, No Incest, Protective Allison Hargreeves, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, Vanya Hargreeves Deserves Better, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25627270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoxyLily/pseuds/RoxyLily
Summary: Watching Vanya scream and cry for someone to let her out of the vault brings back memories of the nights he spent locked away in mausoleums. There's no way he's going to stand by and watch his sister suffer the same fate.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: Umbrella Academy Fix-Its [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856971
Comments: 13
Kudos: 921





	Never Again

Diego, Klaus, and—unbeknownst anyone other than Klaus—Ben paced around the entrance of the cellar. Klaus buried his face in his shaky hands, wracking his brain for a plan that could possibly breed some success.

He had to free Vanya.

He could see her frightened face screaming and pleading through the glass of the containment cell. It reminded him of being locked away in the crypt for hours at a time with no hope of rescue. Klaus knew what it was like to watch as the only people who knew he was there, who could possibly free him, walked away. A full-body shudder rippled its way down his spine. He rubbed at his bare arms in an attempt to chase away the chill that came along with the memories of seemingly ceaseless nights with nothing but ghosts and stone and hopeless terror. Never again, he thought.

“We have to get her out,” Ben said. Klaus’ heart went out to his favorite brother, who had stopped pacing to stare, horrified, at the sight of Vanya trapped behind glass like an animal— hidden away like a monster.

Ben had always been a voice of reason for the Hargreeves siblings seeing as he was the smartest of the bunch. The only one who could rival him in intellectual matters was Five and for years he’d been missing, not to mention the little shit was a bit of an asshole, so when a sibling had needed advice or someone to set them straight, Ben was usually the one to step up to the challenge. Since his death, Ben had been forced to watch as Klaus threw his life away but at least then he’d been able to talk to Klaus and derail some of his stupider schemes. Over the past week he’d watched as his family tore itself apart with mistakes that were easily preventable. Now not even Klaus hearing him would help because, apart from him, the Hargreeves siblings barely even listened to Klaus, much less took anything he said with an ounce of seriousness.

Klaus let out a resigned sigh, his shoulders sinking into a defeated slouch.

“No shit, but how?” he muttered back. Diego spared him a curious glance but soon looked away shaking his head dismissively, no doubt disregarding it as just Klaus being Klaus.

Klaus knew he couldn’t leave her there. Not sweet, sensitive Vanya. It would break her. But how could he possibly get around Luther. Number One refused to budge, even when Allison tried her hardest to shove him away, hitting him when her efforts remained fruitless. If Luther wouldn’t give in to Allison there was no hope in any of the others being able to convince him. They would have to get him to move by brute force but that too seemed impossible. If anyone in the world was the epitome of brute force it would be Luther, hands down. The only one with any chance of getting past him was Five, who was god knows where, now that Allison was no longer able to “rumor” him into caving to her will.

Luther, however, remained unsympathetic. Big surprise, Klaus thought miserably. Luther was always the first to follow whatever their father had said, no matter how crazy. He also never had to struggle to gain control over his power. Super strength wasn’t that frightening or uncontrollable. He had no idea what it was like to live in fear of a new power, one that seemed impossible to control. Only Klaus understood, well him and Ben. And now Luther was standing there stone-faced, much like their father, and condemning Vanya to a sentence that he could never understand.

“She stays put,” Luther said in a firm voice, leaving no room for argument, and that’s when all hell broke loose.

Klaus wasn’t even sure how it happened. He’d clenched his hands into fists, feeling his nails dig into his palms, in an effort to stop them from shaking. A faint blue glow, which slowly intensified as he clenched his fists tighter, spread across his hands. They began to shake uncontrollably and he swayed slightly as he felt his energy take a sudden drop.

“Klaus!” both Ben and Diego shouted but, of the two, Ben’s voice sounded a lot closer despite the fact that he was standing by the vault across the room. Ben had been trying, but failing, to somehow move the door handle and free Vanya. He thought that maybe if he was angry and desperate enough, like when he had punched Klaus earlier that day, he might somehow be able to move the door but, no matter what he did, his hands kept going straight through it.

Ben shot over to his brother’s side though whether it was out of concern or because he felt the pull that was starting to build between them, Klaus didn’t know.

Diego, Luther, and even Allison stopped what they were doing to stare in shock as a glowing, blue Ben appeared in the directly in front of Klaus’ hands, which were glowing the exact same shade. The only one who remained unaffected was Vanya, who was still banging desperately at the door, apologizing and begging profusely for her siblings not to leave her to rot in the cell.

Sensing the change in his state, Ben wasted no time lifting his shirt, letting the tentacles that they all knew to reside underneath rush out and spring into action.

“Ben?” Luther managed just before he got the wind knocked out of him. One of Ben’s tentacles shot towards Luther and wrapped around him, binding his arms to his sides. Luther struggled to free himself though he knew trying to do so would be useless. They had all been witness to the sheer strength of Ben’s power before; they’d even seen his tentacles rip a fully grown man clean in half.

“Let me—” Luther started but, at that very moment, the tentacle chose to rocket backwards, lifting him up off his feet and shoving him up against a wall. The remaining tentacles made quick work of freeing Vanya. As soon as the door was torn off its hinges, Vanya, who’d been alternating between throwing and leaning her entire weight against the unyielding door, went careening forward. Before she could hit the ground, one of Ben’s tentacles wrapped around her waist gently, unlike the way they’d handled Luther, being sure to leave her arms free.

She was placed on the floor beside Allison, who was quick to grab her when her feet immediately gave way under the weight of her panic and exhaustion. Allison wrapped her sister in a hug, silently supporting Vanya as she sobbed freely into her shirt. The room was quiet save for the screams of exertion emitting from both Ben and Klaus as well as the muffled sobs of guilt, fear, and relief that were being pressed into Allison’s light pink shirt.

Once Vanya was safely encased in Allison’s arms, Ben’s tentacles made a hasty retreat. They got sucked back into him moments before he disappeared once more. Klaus felt a stabbing pain go through his chest as his lungs screamed for oxygen. He took a gasping breath, letting his arms, which were feeling shaky and weak, fall to his sides. He ignored the looks of shock on the faces of his siblings—with the exception of Vanya who was still sobbing into Allison’s shirt—in favor of meeting Ben’s amazed gaze.

“I think our work here is done,” he told his brother who nodded back in satisfaction. “I could go for a bite,” he added, finally looking at his other siblings, most of whom just stared at him in stunned silence. “Let’s get waffles—everybody down for waffles? Of course you are; who doesn’t like waffles?” Ben chuckled and made to follow Klaus as the latter turned to leave. “Ooh, make that Belgian waffles!” Klaus called over his shoulder. “Vanya needs ice cream and lots of it.”


End file.
